goes, refusing him absolution
unless he would restore liberty to the people of Florence. Consider the
position. How could Lorenzo restore that which he had never stolen away,
that which had, in truth, never had any real existence? He was without
office, without any technical right to government, merely the first
among the citizens of what, in name at least, was a Republic. If he was
a tyrant, he ruled by the will of the people, not by divine right, a
thing unknown among the Signori of Italy, nor by the will of the Pope,
nor by the will of the Emperor, but by the will of Florence. Yet
Savonarola, the Ferrarese, whether or no he refused him absolution, did
not hesitate to denounce him, with a wild flood of eloquence and fanatic
prophecy worthy of the eleventh century. "Leave the future alone,"
Lorenzo had counselled him kindly enough: it was just that he could not
do, since for him the present was too disastrous. And the future?--the
future was big with Charles VIII and his carnival army, gay with
prostitutes, bright with favours, and behind him loomed the fires of
Piazza della Signoria.

The peace of Italy is dead, the Pope told his Cardinals, when in the
spring of 1492 Lorenzo passed away at Careggi It was true. In September
1494, Charles VIII, on his way to Naples, came into Italy, was received
by Ludovico of Milan at Asti, while his Switzers sacked Rapallo. Was
this, then, the saviour of Savonarola's dreams? "It is the Lord who is
leading those armies," was the friar's announcement. Amid all the horror
that followed, it is not Savonarola that we see to-day as the hero of a
situation he had himself helped to create, but Piero Capponi, who, Piero
de' Medici having surrendered Pietrasanta and Sarzana, stood for the
Republic. On 9th November Piero and Giuliano his brother fled out of
Porta di S. Gallo, while Savonarola with other ambassadors went to meet
the King. A few days later, on 17th November 1494, at about four o'clock
in the afternoon, Pisa in the meantime having revolted, Charles entered
Florence[99] with Cardinal della Rovere, the soldier and future Pope,
and in his train came the splendour and chivalry of France, the Scotch
bowmen, the Gascons, and the Swiss. "Viva la Francia!" cried the people,
and Charles entered the Duomo at six o'clock in the evening, down a lane
of torches to the high altar. And coming out he was conducted to the
house of Piero de' Medici, the people crying still all the time "Viva la
Fran